Council of Churches in Zambia (CCZ) General Secretary Fr Emmanuel Chikoya has admonished Religious Affairs Minister Reverend Godfridah Sumaili for saying Jesus is in the PF boat.

Addressing a rally in Kaoma last Sunday, Rev Sumaili said Jesus Christ is the PF boat and that voting for newly elected Mangango member of parliament Godwin Putu was like voting for Jesus.

“Jesus ali mu bwato. If Jesus is not there, there is no security, there is no peace. That’s why we want a government that honors Jesus. Jesus is in the boat so when we vote for Putu, we are voting for Jesus… Hallelujah, Amen. So on the 20th of November, we are choosing Putu, on the boat and we are selecting for Jesus. God bless you,” said Reverend Sumaili before asking the crowd to flash the PF symbol.

But in an interview, Fr Chikoya cautioned Reverend Sumaili and other leaders to desist from likening Jesus Christ to any human for any purpose, explaining that Jesus could never share his glory with anyone on earth.

Fr Chikoya said the approach taken by the Minister of National Guidance and Religious Affairs was tantamount to blasphemy.

“I think we need to be careful how we do our campaign as politicians and things of that sort. At no time should we equate Jesus to any individual. When such things happen, it’s important for people to correct themselves. And as a Church, we believe that any person who understands Christianity would not subscribe to such kind of an approach. We would just encourage the politicians to humble themselves, to do their campaigns, do their best, pray just like the others also pray. But let Jesus be Jesus, he shares his glory with nobody,” said Fr Chikoya.

“That is actually bordering on blasphemy and my advice to the politicians would be, let us be careful in our utterances, in our political engagements and all these other things, we need to be careful because there are Christians from different political persuasions and there can’t be Jesus just for a political party, that is not right. God is omnipotent, his presence is available to everybody and so we can’t compartmentalize God by our own fear of operations. God is for all, he doesn’t need permission to be anywhere. He will go wherever he wants to go and he will interact with whoever he wants to interact with. So let’s keep away from such kind of approaches as politicians, it is not good.”